FROM B.A. TO PAYDAY: LAUNCHING YOUR CAREER AFTER COLLEGE
D.A. Hayden & Michael Wilder
As college graduates soon find out, the real world is tough. Sure, it was hard getting into the right school. But landing a good job is a lot harder. The number of new college grads now outnumbers available entry-level jobs by at least 25 percent. But that figure—sobering as it is—is deceptive, given that only a fraction of those jobs are career-worthy.
So how do you succeed in a marketplace that’s stacked against you? According to professional career counselors D. A. Hayden and Michael Wilder, you’ve got to approach the hunt for employment as if it were a marketing campaign. In other words, you’ve got to make yourself a brand—by creating a clear “story” for yourself, understanding your target audience, and developing an effective communications plan to deliver your message.
You’ve also got to avoid the pitfalls. Hayden and Wilder identify four personality traits that can doom first-time job seekers to failure. Then, through a trademark method they call Candidate Illumination, the authors prescribe cures for those “pathologies” and present savvy strategies for every step of the job-search process—from finding your focus, to composing a winning resume, to acing the interview. (Note to parents: This book may be the best gift you could give your graduating son or daughter.)
The Hayden-Wilder career counseling program for first-time job applicants has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, the Boston Globe, Time, and on NPR.
About the Authors
D. A. Hayden and MichaelWilder are the founders of Hayden-Wilder, a career-counseling firm based in Boston. They specialize in recent college graduates seeking entry-level positions. Between them, they have coached more than 3,000 candidates. Both have extensive experience in brand marketing. They live in Boston.
Praise for From B.A. to Payday
“This book is exactly what college graduates need. It gives them clear and hopeful strategies for finding job opportunities, interviewing successfully, and showing employers their skills and attributes in the most successful way. It does not sugarcoat the difficulty with which this is accomplished, but it does show the way. Every student and every parent needs to read this!"
--Neal Harris, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Babson College
“From B.A. to Payday is the only book I’ve seen that covers the practical and emotional aspects of a first-time job search. The case histories of recent graduates make the book come alive for students and parents. This is an important read for any graduate looking to enter the real world of today’s workplace.”
--Ruth M. Dowd, R.S.C.J., Dean of Graduate Studies, Manhattanville College
“At last, the perfect roadmap to a first job. A must-read for college seniors, recent graduates, and their parents.”
--John Newton, Department of Marketing Communications, Emerson College
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